The Automobile Racing Club of America released its 2009 schedule late Thursday afternoon for their elite division.

The schedule starts the season at the world center of stock car racing in Daytona and concludes the season with the crowning of a champion at Rockingham Raceway Park where so many Winston Cup champions accepted their crown.  Their schedule is the most diverse in auto racing, featuring stops at the Thunderbolt road course in New Jersey, the dirt miles in Springfield and Du'Quoin, the high-banked high-octane high-pulse action packed Talladega Superspeedway, and the historic Music City Motorplex in Nashville.

ARCA Thunder on RaceTalkRadio.com featured RacingForTheWin.com's Andy Marquis on it's Veteran's Day (November 11th) broadcast in 2008.  Marquis came on shortly after an interview with 2009 CampingWorld Truck Series rookie Tayler Malsam and discussed the Loud Energy Drink 150 at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

You can listen to the November 11, 2008 ARCA Thunder broadcast, in its entirety as it originally aired, here.

On Thursday NASCAR chairman and CEO Brian France and Camping World CEO Marcos Lemonis announced that Camping World would be taking over primary sponsorship of the NASCAR Truck Series in 2009, replacing Craftsman, that decided to pull out as title sponsor at the end of the 2008 season. Craftsman had been the title sponsor of the series since its inception in 1995. Camping World began negotiating with NASCAR in early August to become the title sponsor of the series after deals with other prominent companies fell through.

With only one month left in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, the Chase for the Sprint Cup visits Atlanta Motor Speedway for the Pep Boys Auto 500. Jimmie Johnson has been dominating the Chase so far, but Carl Edwards, Greg Biffle, and Jeff Burton can all capitalize on one bad day for Johnson and the #48 Lowes Chevy team. As the season reaches the last stretch, drivers outside the Chase will be looking to have the best runs they can as they prepare for the 2009 season. After the debacle in the Spring race, the thing most people will be paying attention to this weekend is Goodyear's tire compound selection.

On Wednesday, NASCAR  issued severe penalties to Red Bull Racing for infractions found after the Martinsville Sprint Cup Series race.  Crew chief Kevin Hamlin and car chief Craig Smokstad have been suspended indefinitely from NASCAR.  Additionally, Hamlin has been fined $100,000.  Driver Brian Vickers and owner Dietrich Mateschitz have been docked 150 driver and owner points respectively. The points penalty drops Vickers from 15th to 17th in the standings. The 150 point penalty in owner's points drops the #83 Totyota to 18th.

With only four races to go in the 2008 Sprint Cup Series season, most teams, members of the media, and fans have written off the Chase, conceding the championship Jimmie Johnson. Not Greg Biffle though. Greg Biffle, and the entire #16 3M Ford team, still believe that they can catch up to Jimmie Johnson and compete for the championship. Though most people will call them foolish for believing they can catch up, Biffle and his crew are not completely out of their minds believing they can catch the Johnson and the #48 Lowes Chevy team. All they need is one bad finish by Johnson in his #48 Lowes Chevy.

Coming into the TUMS QuickPak 500, Jimmie Johnson had a strong lead in the Sprint Cup Series points standings. Johnson and the entire #48 Lowes Chevy put themselves closer to winning their third straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship after dominating and winning at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday. The victory was Johnson's sixth win of the season putting him 149 points ahead of Greg Biffle in second place. Johnson, who started from the pole, lead  six times for over 339 laps.  For the second straight race, the entire Hendrick Motorsports team finished in the top ten, with only Casey Mears finishing outside of the top five in sixth place.

Drama was the word of the day in an action packed ARCA Championship clash in Toledo.  The 200-lap race featured 12 caution flags as Frank Kimmel's decade long reign of the ARCA Re/Max Series came to an end as Justin Allgeier scored his first national championship in style with a win at Toledo.

Allgaier, who won at New Jersey and Talladega, made it three in a row winning the 2008 ARCA Re/Max Series Championship in style with an unbelieveable victory in Toledo.

Jeff Burton said he needed to win races in order to be a factor in the Chase for the Sprint Cup Series championship. On Saturday night, he did just that by leading 58 laps and taking his #31 AT&T Chevy to victory lane in the Bank of America 500 at Lowes Motor Speedway.  Burton's second win of the season put him second in the Chase standings, 69 points back behind Jimmie Johnson, and more importantly, made him a contender for the championship.

Burton started the race in fourth place, after NASCAR set the field by owner's points when rain washed out qualifying on Thursday. Burton, who ran in the top ten most of the day, led the final 57 laps of the race and had to fight off runs late in the race by both Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne. Fuel strategy gave Burton the lead and would have been a problem for the #31 if the race were to finish with a green-white-checkard finish. Luckily for Burton, his gamble paid off.

Week five in the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup keeps drivers at home for the Bank of America 500 at Lowes Motor Speedway. At a track where most teams claim "home track advantage", anything can happen in front of their families and friends. The race is the second at a mile and a half track, giving an advantage to the usual suspects. The points standings were shaken up last week after the AMP Energy 500, where only three drivers (Tony Stewart, Clint Bowyer, and Jeff Burton) were able to avoid trouble in Talladega. This week, the drivers in the Chase will look to close the gap between them and points leader Jimmie Johnson. After a successful test session a few weeks ago, teams are ready to battle for a trip to victory lane.